This
document
describes the arabic alphabet, and how it can be written using roman
letters.

Please remember that Egyptian Arabic is an oral language. When people are
asked to write it, some write in Modern Standard Arabic and then pronounce it
the Egyptian way, others write it as an Egyptian would say it. As a result, there may some
variation in the way things are spelt. For example, many verbs end in alif-layena aYى,
but many people write it as a regular alif aaaاَ.

Arabic script

There are 28 basic letters in Egyptian arabic, and about a dozen modifiers.

ابنتدذجحخرزسشصضطظعغفقكلمنهوي

Writing goes from right to left, and the majority of arabic letters join onto the following letter and so there
are therefore four forms of each letter: solitary, initial, middle and final.
For the six letters that do not join, there are just two forms- solitary and final.

position

normal letter

non-joining letter

solitary

ج

د

initial

جـ

middle

ـجـ

final

ـج

ـد

The three short vowels aaَ, iiِ and uuُ and shadda
ّ, which doubles the length of a consonant, are collectively
called tashkeeltashkylتـَشكيل or vowellization.
Tashkyl is not normally used in written arabic apart from in the Quran. If
they are used, they are written above a consonant but pronounced after it:
for the convenience of non-arabic readers, I have included the tashkyl, but written
it after the consonant.

See the Arabic Alphabet section for full information
about each arabic letter, including the european letters used.

It can be a big challenge learning arabic writing at the same time as learning Egyptian
Arabic, so words in the dictionary are written both in Arabic and in European letters.
There are two forms of writing in european letters: Transliterated and Pronounced.

Transliterated arabic

The transliterated form is an exact representation of the arabic script in
roman letters: this is not always straightforward, as there are a lot more letters and
modifiers in arabic than there are in the roman alphabet.

If you want to be able to say words accurately, you need to be able to read either
arabic or the transliterated form- for example, so that you can see the difference
between syn and saad.

Here is a brief summary that shows the relationship between different groups of letters:

Letter

Transliterated

Arabic

short vowel

a i u

َ ِ ُ

long vowel (alif)

aa ee ii uu

ا َ آ ا ِ ا

alif with hamza

aac iic uuc

أ إ أ

other long vowels

y w

ي و

other long vowels with hamza

yc wc

ئ ٶ

gluttal stop qaf

q

ق

voiced qaf

Q

ق

soft consonant

d h s t z

د ه س ت ز

alveolar consonant

D H S T Z

ض ح ص ط ظ

double-letter consonants

dh sh th

ذ ش ث

t-marbuta

o

ــَة

alif-layena

Y

ـى

It is readable if you ignore hamza 'Cء and
tee-marbuta t_oـة, and read alif-layena aYى
as a.

Pronunced arabic

If you are not interested in learning to read and write arabic writing, you may
find the pronounced form easier to use. This shows an arabic word as it would
be pronounced by an English person. The stressed syllable is underlined, and
a ' is a gluttal stop: think of a cockney saying bottle as bo'le.

Some words are joined together when spoken: the pronounced form shows when
joining takes place. See Pronunciation rules
for more information.

Fatha is the short vowel corresponding to a. It is normally written above a consonant and pronounced after it. For ease of reading, this dictionary puts short vowels after the consonant. Short vowels are normally omitted except in the quran.

Kasra is the short vowel corresponding to i. It is normally written above a consonant and pronounced after it. For ease of reading, this dictionary puts short vowels after the consonant. Short vowels are normally omitted except in the quran.

Damma is the short vowel corresponding to u. It is normally written above a consonant and pronounced after it. For ease of reading, this dictionary puts short vowels after the consonant. Short vowels are normally omitted except in the quran.

Shadda is written above a consonant and doubles the consonant. Unlike in english, double consonants are pronounced, so if you take katab and put a shadda above the t, it will be pronounced kat-tab, with one t and the end of the first syllable and one t at the beginning of the next syllable. Shadda is often omitted in written arabic. Double-lem and double-yeh are often written as two separate letters, rather than one with a shadda.

Alif with a hamza below is used only at the beginning of words. It represents a gluttal stop followed by kasra - a short i. Strictly speaking, it should be written with both a hamza and a kasra.
Alif-hamza below is used at the beginning of the perfect of many derived verbs, which are formed by adding a prefix (it-, in-, ist- and i?t-) to a base verb. These derived verbs often have a passive (be ...ed) or reflexive (oneself, each other) meaning.

Alif with a fatha is used only in the middle and at the end of words. It is usually pronounced either as ae as in aeroplane, or as ar as in hard: these two forms are represented as ae and aa respectively in transliterated arabic. When it is followed by two consonants in a row or a consonant and a long vowel, it is shortened to a short a.
When it follows a lem, the two letters are joined together and written لا. At the end of the 'we' and 'they' form of pronouns and verbs, wow-alif is pronounced as oo.

Alif-kasra is used only in ال il, the prefix meaning 'the'. As the kasra is never actually written, it is not clear whether 'the' should be pronounced il, el, or al. As a result, there are regional differences in pronunciation. In the dictionary, we have standardized on il, to avoid confusion.

Ain is an alveolar a. This letter makes more problems for Europeans than any other: it sounds close to alif, and you can easily confuse people if you do not say it correctly. Ain is treated as a consonant for the purposes of pronunciation rules.

Lem is normally pronounced as l. If it is followed by an alif, the letters are joined together as لا.
In the il prefix (which means 'the'), if it is attached to a noun that starts with a Sun letter, the lem is pronounced by replacing with a second sun-letter, so il-Dwr is pronounced iD-Dwr.

Tee-marbuta is a hey with two dots above it. For many words, opinions vary about whether the word should be spelt with hey or tee-marbuta. In this dictionary, most feminine singular nouns are spelt with tee-marbuta at the end: The ending of these words is pronounced as either -a or -ah in the nominative form, and as -it in the genitive form.

Wow can be pronounced as w when it is next to at least one short vowel, and as oo when it is between two consonants. The 'we' and 'they' form of verbs and pronouns ends in wow-alif, which is pronounced oo as in 'too'.